Toyota Motor Corp.
is expanding its U.S. factory capacity as the threat of tariffs reshapes automotive supply chains. The Japanese auto maker plans to spend nearly $13 billion to make two new hybrid vehicles in the U.S. and expand plants that make components, the WSJ’s Adrienne Roberts writes. The move comes as the Trump administration is weighing new tariffs of up to 25% on auto imports. Changing consumer tastes factored into the decision. Toyota plans to make a RAV4 hybrid SUV and a hybrid Lexus ES sedan at a Kentucky plant where it cut Camry production as consumers moved away from that car, and the company is boosting production at an Alabama plant that makes SUV engines. Still,
Jim Lentz,
Toyota’s chief executive of North American operations, said “I’d be disingenuous if I said we didn’t have an eye on trade.”

Food delivery costs are taking a toll on
Walmart Inc.
The world’s biggest retailer is struggling to make the economics of grocery delivery work as it races to compete with
Amazon.com Inc.,
the WSJ’s Sarah Nassauer reports. On the back end, Walmart employs some 35,000 in-store “pickers” who assemble digital orders alongside traditional shoppers, a slower and more costly process than fulfillment from specialized distribution centers. And the crowdsourced drivers who deliver most Walmart goods to homes often need incentives to take on jobs lugging heavy groceries. Some delivery firms working with Walmart are raising pay, while others are grouping orders in advance to give drivers more reliable work. Hurdles are steep: Walmart had trouble finding drivers who would pay a $15 toll to deliver orders across the Hudson River after the retailer mistakenly included Manhattan in a New Jersey store’s delivery zone.

ECONOMY & TRADE

Toyota says it will boost planned investment in the U.S. to nearly $13 billion by 2021.
Photo:
Michael Noble Jr./Bloomberg News

Mexico’s booming U.S. tomato trade may go splat. The Commerce Department’s decision to resurrect antidumping tariffs on Mexican imports could disrupt the flow of some $2 billion worth of tomatoes to the U.S., the WSJ’s Anthony Harrup writes. Mexico’s tomato exports to the U.S. have more than doubled since a 1996 agreement that set minimum prices for imported Mexican tomatoes, and the country now sends half its national product across the border. U.S. growers can’t meet domestic demand on their own, but a Florida industry group asked for the deal to be terminated, saying it had too many loopholes. Mexican producers say if a new accord isn’t reached the levies will drive up costs and put them at risk of losing exports to other nations.

QUOTABLE

“
‘Labor peace is a key ingredient for companies to determine whether to come or not to Mexico.’
”

Number of the Day

9.1%

Annual decline in loaded container imports into the Port of Los Angeles in February.